Hello Carter

Hello Carter is director Anthony Wilcox’s love letter to London, shot to give the goings on a warm, soft lit glow despite the melancholy situation the titular character, played by Charlie Cox, is initially stuck in. Carter, whom we first see sleeping on his cheery chappy brother’s floor, has had a bad year. On top of being homeless, he broke up with his girlfriend Kelly 11 months earlier, and he’s freshly unemployed. Tired of crappy job interviews with irritating spivs, Carter decides to win Kelly back.

A run in with his old American friend (and Kelly’s brother) Aaron (Paul Schneider) provides his first window of opportunity to get the all important new phone number of his ex. But when the self-obsessed and slightly unbalanced Aaron requests a very special favour in return for his sister’s digits, Carter ends up on a comedy of errors type adventure across central London that takes in baby snatching, car chases, clubs and a team up with the pretty Jenny (Jodie Whittaker).

Director Wilcox previously worked as an assistant director on films including The End Of The Affair and The Deep Blue Sea, before making his debut here. He wanted to show a portrait of London as an exciting metropolis where random meetings, loneliness and excitement can coexist in the same space, the same minute.

He certainly has made London pretty to look at through lighting and location choices (this is largely an upper crust London tale) and the use of Thundercat and other artists on the soundtrack adds a certain wistful urban something. But in terms of story, character and script there is little else in Hello Carter to get ones teeth into. Too many jokes fall flat despite coming from the mouths of a very talented cast, and the convoluted plot (can’t Carter look his ex up on Facebook?) offers few interesting or surprising directions to take the characters in by the end. It ends up being just an inoffensive and old-fashioned story about nice charming middle class people that runs 45 minutes too long without enough wit and crackle in the fuel tank.